2017 Spencer Comprehensive Land Use Plan

Spencer, Iowa  2017  Comprehensive Plan

The following map shows the FY 2014 total retail sales for the City of Spencer in comparison to neighboring cities and regional communities.

Figure 30 - Region map showing Total Taxable Retail Sales for area cities

PULL FACTOR The pull factor was developed by Iowa State University Extension Service to provide a precise measure of sales activity in a locality. The pull factor is derived by dividing the per capita current dollar sales of a city or county by the per capita sales for the state. For example, if a town’s per capita sales were $18,000 per year and the state per capita sales were $9,000 per year, the pull factor is 2.0 ($18,000/$9,000). The interpretation is that the town is selling to 200 percent of the town’s population in full time customer equivalents. Pull factors are good measures of sales activity because they reflect changes in population, inflation, and the state’s economy. A strict interpretation of the pull factor indicates a 1.0 means the city is drawing all its customers from within its boundaries and none from the outside. Less than 1.0 means there is leakage of customer sales to outside the community and a ratio over 1.0 means the city is attracting customer sales or purchases from residents outside its trade area boundaries.

81 | P a g e

NW Iowa Planning & Development